Kōtoku-in - The Great Buddha of Kamakura

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Sun - Sat 8am - 5:30pm

Kamakura in the Rain

It wasn't raining in Tokyo, but as we made our way to Kamakura the weather took a turn for the worse. The skies became cloudy, the temperature dropped and rain started falling. Our escape to the beach wasn’t going as planned.

Once we got to Hase the rain picked up even more. Spring isn’t the typical time of year that tourists visit this coastal town, a fact which was made apparent by the boarded up shops and relatively empty streets. We followed a procession of umbrellas down the avenue to Kōtoku-in where we quietly viewed the Great Buddha. Seeing the Buddha out in the elements with us made it seem so much more accessible and at one with its surroundings.

By this point in the day we were cold, soaked to the bone and hungry. Luckily for us, not everything on the street preceding the temple was closed. A tiny, barely noticeable ramen shop sat mere feet from the entrance to the temple. Curious, we peeked our heads inside only to be enthusiastically ushered to a table by the smiling elderly hostess. My knowledge of the Japanese language is elementary at best, my wife’s… non-existent. So the only way we were able to order was to go to the display at the front of the restaurant and point at what we thought might taste good. Chances are it wouldn’t have mattered what we ordered because everything we received was delicious. If the obvious age of the restaurant was any indication this place had been doing great business for a long time, most likely due to the quality of the food.